John Murphy and Gary Hurley are right in the thick of it after the opening round of the HotelPlanner Tour’s English Trophy at The Caversham in Reading, while Conor Purcell is also inside the provisional cutline.
Murphy, playing in the afternoon wave in round one and starting on the 10th, reached the turn at three-under after making back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 after earlier birdies on 11 and 14 and a lone bogey on 15.
He kept his momentum up on the front side, posting another pair of back-to-back birdies on the par-3 second and par-4 third, then took care of the par-5 fifth to move level with Hurley at -6. There was still time for him to move to the front of the Irish trio, however, and he did that with another par-3 birdie on the eighth and he occupies sole possession of second place, just one off the lead.
Hurley was among the early starters and opened with a bogey but that would be the only blemish on his card. He reeled off three birdies in a row from the third, then added another on seven to turn at -3.
He birdied both par-5s on the back nine, and also birdied the par-4 12th to shoot six-under and briefly take the clubhouse lead before being overtaken by Kristian Hjort Bressum who was playing in the group behind.
Conor Purcell traded three birdies with a solitary bogey to shoot a two-under round of 70 that leaves him tied for 44th.
But Hjort Bressum remained the man to catch. The Dane made the most of calm morning conditions, as he made eight birdies on his way to carding a bogey-free eight under-par-64 to take the solo lead.
“All in all, I just hit a lot of good drives and hit some good approach shots,” he said. “The shortest putt I missed was a 20-footer, I made everything inside 20 feet.
“That’s probably the main reason I played well. I birdied all the par fives today, so I took advantage of them and there were a lot of gettable pins on some of the short par fours.
“I hit my wedges within 20 feet and made them. It was good.”
After a difficult start to the season, The Dane has picked up form of late, making the cut in four of his last six starts on the Road to Mallorca, after making the cut just once in his 11 starts before the Irish Challenge last month.
“I had a really rough start,” he added. “I played really bad, did my best obviously, but it wasn’t very good. And then the last six or seven tournaments, I think I’ve played really well.
“I’ve been close to the lead a lot of times and had a lot of good rounds, a couple of bad rounds but I think my game is definitely trending.
“It’s been an awesome year.”
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